Celsea McGrew wins Quartz Hill singles title

Tuesday

Oct 1, 2013 at 1:30 PM

Burroughs girls tennis team takes second place at tournament on Saturday

By Anthony GentileSPORTS EDITORagentile@ridgecrestca.com

QUARTZ HILL — Sparked by its top player, the Burroughs girls tennis team took second place at the Quartz Hill Tournament on Saturday. Burros senior Celsea McGrew won the tournament's individual singles title for the second time in three years."It was a really good tournament for us — the girls did well," Burroughs head coach Kenold Prince said.After a first-round bye, Celsea McGrew beat opponents from Serrano (10-2 pro set) and Knight (6-0, 6-1) to advance to the finals. In the championship match, the senior shook off early struggles to defeat a player from host Quartz Hill 7-5, 6-2."Celsea stepped up her game — she was serving well, hitting good groundstrokes and everything was going in," Prince said. "She overpowered her opponents."Celsea McGrew won the Quartz Hill Tournament as a sophomore two years ago and lost in the finals last year. She said last year's second-place finish motivated her to return to the top."I definitely came in wanting to win it. I put that in my mind and then just went out and played my game," Celsea McGrew said. "Everything was just working really well for me."Burroughs also received a strong singles performance from Miriam Kolar. Kolar won matches against players from Knight (8-6) and Palmdale (10-5) before losing in the semifinals 1-6, 2-6 to an opponent from Serrano. Kolar lost 2-6, 2-6 to an opponent from Quartz Hill in the third-place match."It was very surprising," Prince said. "She played well and she kept on winning."On the doubles side, Lara Luu and Camynn McGrew received a bye and lost 5-10 to the top doubles team from Serrano in the second round. Myisha Edwards and Hayley Weik also lost their first match of the tournament, falling 5-10 to a team from Palmdale."I wanted to give the doubles teams experience playing together, but the doubles got a bad draw," Prince said.Daytona Burks and Emma Heflin also played for Burroughs in the tournament, and each lost first-round matches. The Burros finished tied for second behind Quartz Hill, and won the tiebreaker over Serrano based on Celsea McGrew's apperance in the finals.Burroughs moved up one spot to No. 6 in the latest CIF-SS Division 5 girls tennis rankings, and has won its first seven matches to start the season. The Burros host Granite Hills today at BHS courts, and a victory would move them a big step closer to winning a DSL championship."We need to focus and really come out here and give it our all — tomorrow will be our biggest test to see how much our team wants it," Celsea McGrew said. "We're capable of winning a league title, and it's been a while since we've done it, so it would be awesome to come back and win league again."Burroughs beat Granite Hills 10-8 in the first round of DSL play, and the Cougars present the biggest threat to Burroughs' league championship hopes."This is big one for us — hopefully we can play well," Prince said. "I think we're ready."